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Past Parity

Friday, July 23rd, 2004

It hotter then something very hot, with a degree in hotness

Actually it’ not that bad. I find it amazing how for all the thousands of dollars of technology in a car, a $5 sunshade keeps it pleasantly cool in the day.

I’ve start taking the vanpool to work and the guy who usually drives who I’ve nicknamed Mad Ali. He ducks in and out of traffic in a 15 seat van the way Jeff does in a Nissan 240. Last week he started changed lanes and was halfway across when a woman driving a car tried to pull into him causing the van to madly rock back into the other lane. A second later the olfactory presence of methane was clearly detectable in the van.

I think Rose and my plans this weekend involve hiding in the house and drinking this Blueberry cocktail we found at Fred Meyer which you add to vodka. Actually I could drink the mix without the vodka pretty happily.

My application for Naturalization left on Tuesday so hopefully I’ll hear back from them soon, other then a note saying ‘As if!’. I think they make the form and instruction deliberately confusing to stop us disgusting foreigners from getting in to the US. It’s odd really, I want to be a US Citizen and I have to jump through hoops and they’re plenty of people who were born here who just bitch about it. .

It’s kind of interesting thought about England whether eventually if there is so much immigration whether the country will lose it’s national identity. Is that a bad thing? It’s a bit of head scratcher.

spoke Rob at at 1.00pm | permalink | 2 comments

Monday, July 19, 2004

The Big Cheese

So the CEO big cheese is coming to our site today. I’ve wandering around all day paranoid that he’ll be around the next corner. I always wonder if there’s a little exec hidey hole somewhere they stay in to stop themselves picking up pee-on cooties.

I started pulling the planters off my deck on Sunday only to realize that they was nothing there other then badly rotted wood and dirt holding it up. Pie (name suppressed for security reasons) and I seem to swap off being optimistic about the house. Usually when I’m running around wanting to offload the thing she’s the one saying it’ll all be Ok, and when she’s the ones saying to get rid of it I’m usually saying lets hang on.

I’ve started taking the vanpool to work. If I take it on days I’m not rehearsing I’m saving 60 percent of the gas use and mileage on my car. With my car’s advanced mileage and the price of gas I couldn’t refuse any longer.

Because of my big mouthed mother my brother changed the name of his baby. My Grandmonster went by Kay (her real was Pasagittle) so my Mum got the notion that naming the baby Katherine was a dedication to her. I told my brother it was none of her beeswax but he’d already changed the name. Damn relatives, why couldn’t I have been born to a wolf pack or something cool like that.

In honor to the fantasy sex camp Pie has, here is my pick for the week:

Monday – Milla Jovavich (circa 1992)
Tuesday – Milla Jovavich (circa 1992
Wednesday – Milla Jovavich (circa 1992
Thursday – Milla Jovavich (circa 1992
Friday – Milla Jovavich (circa 1992
Saturday – Milla Jovavich (circa 1992
Sunday – Scarlet Johansson (variety is the spice of life)

spoke Rob at at 12.30pm | permalink | 2 comments

Wednesday, July 07, 2004

Cry Uncle (again)

So I’d like to welcome Katherine Rosamond to the world. Weighing in at 9 ½ lbs and coming to us on Independence Day she joins one of the most neurotic families on the planet. Rose and I endured most of the lowlifes and a blowout fight to buy baby clothes at South Center this weekend. I stepped out of the car and most first thought was ‘we should leave’, way too many gangsta wannabes.

I was saying to Rose I’m sad I won’t get to spend as much time around my nieces (I have 2) growing up as I’d like. Of course it’s a sweet deal for them, Rose and I are like these disembodied benefactors who send them gifts that they only have to spend a minimal of time working us for.

Our fourth was kind of quiet other than a few fire works. Our neighborhood mostly has old cedar roofs so suffice to say fireworks are usually taboo. I was saddened that I didn’t get to see my redneck neighbors streaking around their backyard after setting them selves on fire. It’s the small pleasures that keep me happy.

I’m trying to juggle getting all the stuff around the house dealt with (furnaces, trees etc). It surprises me how flaky contractors can be about phoning you back, if someone waves 7k around me I become very attentive, like a dog around a piece of meat.

spoke Rob at at 1.00pm | permalink | 3 comments

Thursday, July 01, 2004

I've never met a nice South African...well I have actually

Rose and I met Jen on Friday. On her blog she said I wasn’t shy to join the conversation and told interesting stories. I don’t think I’ve ever been called a big mouth in such a pleasant way. Poor old Rose got to hear a selection from the archives of the Rob classic collection, pretty soon I won’t have to talk she’ll just be able to recite them for me.

If the level of motivation/happiness where I work was already lower then the suicidal depressive wing at a mental hospital it may have slipped to the level which even Leonard Cohen couldn’t mirror in one of his records as a very aggressive manager has moved onto the program I’m working on. He’s the kind of guy if he was in the army he’d be shot by a miraculous boomerang bullet which would appear to have come from the back but the troops would deny firing to the end.

As much as I love my house I’m beginning to suspect it’s really a 2 story millstone. Every since we’ve owned it we’ve struggled to keep. You can mix that with the fact the building material used on the house is the most impractical and expensive possible (cedar siding and roof). The siding is peeling away and needs to be repainted and the roof is pretty much shot. Fortunately the neighborhood association finally got their heads out of their asses and let us use composite roof which will only broke me half as much as the cedar shake.

I spoke to the INS the morning to get my US citizenship going. If you've never dealt with them they are the most humorless bunch of trogites you’ll ever encounter. It’s like their really saying how dare you try to become American you limey bastard. Believe me these people are all business. You can imagine them going home and saying to their kids ‘Sorry I can’t spend time with you, you didn’t fill out your parental quality time forms correctly’.

spoke Rob at at 2.00pm | permalink | 1 comment